


and they called it puppy love

by alicemurphy



Category: Dead To Me (TV)
Genre: Dogs, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Like the fluffiest of fluff, One Shot, soft!Jen, they're married y'all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:09:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24965749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alicemurphy/pseuds/alicemurphy
Summary: Judy rescues a puppy.Jen finds out about it.
Relationships: Judy Hale/Jen Harding
Comments: 14
Kudos: 144





	and they called it puppy love

**Author's Note:**

> so the archive has been really quiet this weekend and DF isn’t quite ready yet, so I thought I’d upload one of the things that has been sat in my drafts for ages. 
> 
> it’s really old and probably not that great and it's literally the least serious thing ever, but I hope it puts a smile on your face to start the week 💖

Jen walks through the front door and into the kitchen and immediately knows that something is up.

Ever since her and Judy finally sorted their shit out last year, Judy’s practically pounced on her the second she got home, welcoming her back with a kiss (or a stupidly long hug if little eyes are in the room) like she’s been gone for weeks, not been at work for a few hours.

Today when she walks in, however, Judy's awkwardly standing by the kitchen counter, moving her fingers around and rocking on her heels like she’s anxious about something. Jen’s first reaction is concern, but a really quick glance shows there’s no empty wine glasses or tear stains, so that means it’s probably nothing _too_ serious – it just means that she's really not going to like whatever Judy is going to say.

“Hey babe.” Jen says a little cautiously, Judy startling and quickly jerking her head in Jen’s direction.

“Oh, hi Jen. I didn’t hear you get home.”

_She didn’t notice me come in? Ohhh, whatever she’s hiding is not going to be fucking good._

“How, umm, how was your day?” Judy asks, still not moving any closer. Jen tries not to roll her eyes – Judy is being so fucking weird. She is _awful_ at hiding things. Honestly, how the fuck she managed to keep what happened to Ted a secret for so fucking long is anyone’s guess.

“It was fine. Met some people, tried to sell some houses. How was yours? Anything... _interesting_ happen?”

“Me? No! Totally normal day. Nothing interesting at all. Why...umm why would you think anything interesting happened?”

Jen can’t stop herself smiling now, stalking closer towards her wife, smile growing as Judy backs away a little because that _never_ happens. _What the fuck is going on?_

“Yeah?” Jen starts, trying to keep her voice casual like she isn’t completely onto the woman before her. She looks away from Judy and around the kitchen, trying to think of a way to get her to relax a little so she’ll just tell Jen what’s up.

“Where are the boys?” she eventually decides to ask, knowing talk of their sons always makes Judy smile, no matter what ridiculous thing they might have done now.

Shockingly, it doesn’t seem to work.

“Oh, they’re outside with the--” Judy starts before abruptly stopping herself, eyes widening. If Jen was curious before, now she’s fucking desperate to know what she’s walked into, and she’s immediately heading towards the back door before her wife can stop her. “They’re fine, Jen, you don’t need to go out and check on --- *bark* --- …them.”

“What was that?” Jen asks, pausing to look back at Judy with her hand on the doorknob.

“Hmm?” Judy says, eyes wide and so fucking guilty. “What was what? I definitely didn’t hear anything, nope. There was nothing to hear at all.” 

“Judes…”

*bark*

“Okay seriously, Jude, what the fuck was that?”

“Jen, look don’t get annoyed okay? I just--”

Judy trails off as Jen turns back around and opens the back door, stepping outside. She instantly spots Charlie sat on the floor, which is super weird, Henry crouched down in front of him, and _oh fuck_ , there’s a tiny black and white ball of fluff bouncing about between them.

Jen turns to look at Judy, raising her eyebrow and trying her very best to look irritated and maybe a little intimidating. It doesn’t work – it hasn’t worked since long before their wedding day. Judy knows to look right past that whatever semi-harsh look Jen might throw in her direction to the disgustingly soft person that Jen hates that she is underneath.

She really wants to be mad that Judy could have brought a puppy home without asking her, without even letting her know. At least she wants her wife to think that she’s mad – she really can’t be that soft and gross now to not be able to even _pretend_ she’s angry.

It must sort of work, because Judy seems to think Jen’s annoyed, and she’s walking up to Jen a little seductively, but with her bottom lip poked out in the most dramatic pout and the craziest puppy dog eyes that would probably rival whatever is playing with the kids. She looks so fucking adorable Jen just wants to melt right there and then.

“Jen, baby,” Judy begins and the pout and big eyes are still there, oh and now she’s running her hands up and down Jen’s arms. Whatever willpower Jen had left is quickly evaporating. “pleaaasee can we keep her? There was a rescue shelter at the park today and the boys saw her and oh my god, I couldn’t say no--”

Judy leans further in, brushing her nose over Jen's, giving her the lightest kiss on the side of her mouth. _This is so fucking unfair Judy what are you doing? “--_ and if you just look at her, you won’t be able to say no either.”

Jen tries so hard to stay impassive, but Judy kisses her once again, so so gently, and Jen can’t force back the smile anymore, looking away to try to hide it and shrugging as she says “Urgh, fine, let me look then.”

There’s a squeal from Judy as she jumps away from Jen and excitedly goes to grab the dog from the boys, cradling her as she walks back to Jen.

“You’re going to love your other mommy so much, and she’s going to love you, as soon as she sees you, isn’t she?” Judy is cooing into the puppy’s fur as she approaches. _Of course she’s using a fucking baby voice to talk to a dog_ , Jen thinks, rolling her eyes again, but all she feels is love towards this ridiculous woman who of course is just as magical with animals as she is with everything else.

“Jen, this is Mavis.”

“Oh, fuck no, that is not a good dog name.” Jen immediately exclaims.

“It’s just what the shelter gave her. We can change it if you really want. The boys seem to like it though.” Judy replies, gesturing over her shoulder to remind her wife that their sons are right there and undoubtedly eagerly watching for their Mom's reaction.

Jen eyes the puppy a little suspiciously. She has no idea what sort of dog she is, black and white with black patches over both eyes and far too much fur to be living in LA really, but even she has to admit that she’s horrifically cute.

Judy seems to be following Jen’s thoughts, waiting for a good moment.

“Here, hold her.”

“Oh, no, it’s okay...”

“Come on, Jen.” Judy starts, and then hold the dog right in front of Jen, saying as if voicing the puppy, “please.”

And then she hands Mavis to Jen, who holds her a little awkwardly in her hands, a little uncomfortable, but Judy is stood in front of them giving them this big encouraging smile so she lifts the little dog up to her face so they’re practically nose to nose, and _fucking hell she’s adorable._

Jen just stands there staring at the dog, still face to face, melting more and more each second. _Yeah, this dog isn’t going fucking anywhere._

“Hi sweet baby girl”

*

Judy walks into the house after grocery shopping a few weeks later to find Jen sat on the floor with the puppy on her lap.

She laughs, because for the last week or so Jen’s been complaining about how much worse her back is than normal recently - it’s definitely because she seems to refuse to sit anywhere where the dog can’t reach her anymore.

When Judy brought Mavis home, she expected anger or frustration or something. She didn’t expect for Jen to get this attached this quick – it’s the cutest thing she’s ever fucking seen though.

“Hey baby" Judy says to announce her presence. Jen barely looks her way, making Judy laugh a little again.

“Oh, hey. Come join us.”

Judy goes to sit on the sofa nearest Jen, because she’ll actually act like a woman in her 40s and let the dog come to her.

As soon as Mavis spots her, the dog is trying to scramble off Jen, tripping and falling a little around Jen’s ankles.

Jen scoops her up right away, lifting her back up so Jen and the dog are face to face again. It seems to be Jen’s happy place now, staring into puppy dog eyes.

“You’re so fucking stupid. Come back to Mommy”

Judy’s beaming, but she still doesn’t want to be left out. “Hey she’s my puppy too!”

“You're so cute and beautiful and smooshy. You’re so perfect aren’t you.” Jen continues, ignoring Judy entirely.

Judy thinks back to the angry Jen she first met a couple years ago, the Jen that listened to deafeningly loud metal music and smashed up cars with golf clubs and yelled at everyone indiscriminately, trying to compare her with the woman rolling around on the floor booping the tiny nose of their dog in their house that they share with their boys.

Maybe Judy doesn’t mind being ignored for a few minutes if it means she gets to see Jen this happy finally.

She decides to leave them to it and go get started on dinner for their family.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!! 
> 
> I can't believe I was ever capable of writing anything this disgustingly sweet, my inner Jen is screaming.
> 
> Please let me know what you think! 💖


End file.
